WWII Journal: Upton man tells story through photographs

Monday

Aug 11, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By Jeff MalachowskiDaily News Staff

For Alfred Consigli, each photo encased under glass and hanging inside the garage, living room and bedroom of his Upton home tells a story of his service during World War II.Behind the lenses of cameras he found in a suitcase while searching a German home for Nazis, Consigli documented his time fighting the enemy in Germany, Austria and Belgium, and the aftermath of World War II.While Consigli traded many of the cameras he found to his fellow soldiers, including dealing two of them for a Thompson submachine gun, he kept two and photographed his own personal history of the war. The pictures range from a photo of him in front of one of Adolf Hitler’s homes in Berchtesgaden, Germany, to another of him donning his neatly pressed and creased uniform, which he said he was proud to wear."Nobody wanted to take pictures, but I did," said the 90-year-old Consigli, who was drafted into the Army in 1943.One particular photo brings back vivid memories of the horrors of war for Consigli, a sharpshooter on a tank nicknamed Blood-N-Guts. In the distance of the photo lies a burning German tank, a photo Consigli took from the turret of his tank."I can smell the bodies burning right now," said Consigli.Other photos show Nazi prisoners of war marching into a campsite and tanks, including Blood-N-Guts, guarding them, while others depict destroyed German buildings with German citizens walking around as if nothing happened."They were all dressed up," said Consigli, who never married. "They couldn’t admit defeat."While Consigli was a good shot with his camera, he was a sharpshooter with any gun put in front of him.Consigli learned how to shoot as a child in Milford and quickly became a marksman, shooting pennies, ladles and wooden matches propped up on fences."When I was 14 years old I liked guns," said Consigli. "Our neighbor used to leave a ladle on the side of the fence and I’d shoot at it. Our neighbor had a 1936 Chevy sedan parked in the garage and sometimes the bullets were going right through and denting the door. He didn’t say anything about the bullet dents."After being drafted into the Army, Consigli was sent to basic training in Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he trained to serve on Gen. George Patton’s Black Cat Battalion, a unit trained to fight at night."I made a big mistake," he said. "They asked, ‘Do you like guns?’ I said ‘Oh yes.’ Now they knew where to put me."Consigli wowed several high-ranking military officials with his pinpoint shooting and was immediately promoted to corporal and recruited by a tank commander to be Blood-N-Guts’ gunner."I hit every target," he confidently said.Throughout his more than three years on Blood-N-Guts, Consigli and his battalion fought on the front lines in Germany, Austria, England, Luxembourg, France and Belgium. The crew rarely left the tank’s side, eating and sleeping in the tank."We were always ready," he said. "You had to be. We were the conquerors."Like his shooting, Consigli's memories of World War II are sharp.More than 70 years later, he can still recite word-for-word his orders when he and his battalion landed on Utah Beach in France. Consigli recalls traveling the English countryside where numerous hay bales hid English bombs and also remembers a friendly German woman who fed him soup while he and his fellow soldiers slept in the snow around the tank."I was proud," he said of his serviceConsigli recalls his mother writing letters to him while he was fighting on the front lines. Alfred was not the only one his mother wrote to: seven of his nine brothers fought during World War II. His oldest brother John was in the Air Corps, while Mario was in the Marines, Joseph and Luis served in the Army and Richard and George were in the Navy."They never talked about the service," he said. "I just found out two years ago John went up in an airplane during the war."All seven brothers survived the war, but the stress of having her seven sons on the front lines took its toll on Consigli’s mother, who died two weeks after Consigli returned home in 1946."She used to worry so much," he said. "She died from worrying."Upon returning home from the war, Consigli moved from Milford to Upton and started his own sandblasting and welding business.Consigli’s age has not slowed him down, as he still does sandblasting work for friends, drives his new truck to car shows and even still shoots targets from time to time, most recently last month."The first shot went right in the middle," Consigli said with a laugh and a wink.Jeff Malachowski can be reached at 508-490-7466 or jmalachowski@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @JmalachowskiMW.